Fossils (SU AU)

[Chairtastic]

Chapter Four – Abuse and Defiance

Pearl had taught Jet most of what he knew. Words, so he could understand what their diamond wanted of him, how to access his gem powers – as far as she was permitted – so that he could please her with his magical efforts, and finally how to be a pleasing ornament for Blue Diamond. She found the third one was trickier than she'd anticipated, for his body didn't move the way a gem's did. He couldn't alter how his body bent as it suited him – he had rigid structures inside him which limited his mobility. Unfortunate for him, but she did her best.

Lesson one was how to flounce pleasingly. Pearl would drape herself on a structure or surface, and instruct Jet to mimic her. He was heavier, so he struggled to get it right. But with practice, she was sure he could flounce with the best of them. Lesson two was how to dance. Jet took to dance like a lapis to the water. Stretches and practice moving in unexpected directions allowed him to make minor adjustments to his posture to accommodate a mimicry of true gem dance.

Balancing on his toes had been, by far, the hardest part in learning to dance. He could do so for a few seconds, but balancing on a bubble helped him gain stability for simple fact that if he lacked it he would fall. The first time he fell, he had become a bawling wreck that their diamond had to calm down. Pearl found out later on that Jet had never felt pain before, and didn't know how to react.

He got better about managing his response to pain, though even minor landings on his head or bad landings on joints would leave him bawling again. Blue Diamond understood that it was necessary for Jet to learn how to dance, however. She had confided in Pearl that it was likely jets would come to accompany pearls in the servant caste, alongside spinels.

Where Pearl erred was on lesson three, singing. She didn't err purposefully, for she hadn't known what would happen. But as she taught the notes to Jet, and he sang them back to her, she felt something was wrong. But singing was vital for a servant, so Pearl pressed on, and taught him a simple song.

"Twinkle twinkle, little star / How I wonder what you are," Jet sang back to her after she'd sung it to him. Instantly something was terribly wrong. Jet smiled like he was happy as could be, Pearl felt her limbs grow heavy. "Up above the world so high / Like a diamond in the sky."

Pearl couldn't stand anymore, she fell to her knees. Jet didn't know what was wrong, he was focused on singing his first ever song.

"When the blazing sun is gone / When there nothing shines upon."

Pearl's vision darkened, and she felt herself fall forward – then, nothing. She was unable to move, unable to see. Until something shifted in the darkness.

"Then you show your little light / Twinkle, twinkle all the night."

Pearl felt fear dig its claws into her as the something in the dark moved again. But as soon as it appeared, there was color to replace it. Turquoise and white gobbled up the blackness, and left a scene of wonder in its place. An endless expanse of water which was dotted with spiral spires decorated in statues which looked like Pearl's drawings. Sheer lacy fabric was strewn between the spires and danced in the wind. Gems gracefully crossed these bridges like they were made of solid stone! And in her hand was an order from her diamond to explore the world, and see its wonders. What a wonderful day!

She completely forgot the fear she had felt before she had the vision of the wonderful place.

–

Blue Diamond had been hard at work when she heard Pearl singing to Jet to teach him. His voice wasn't practiced, but once he'd gotten it right their harmonies would please her greatly she imagined. The choice of song was something Blue had once sung to Pink when she taught the new diamond how to sing. Bittersweet, it drove Blue to tear up. What worried her was why Jet's rendition of the song made her feel listless, exhausted.

"Then the traveler in the dark / Thanks you for your little spark."

Blue Diamond closed her eyes, and when she opened them again she was not in her control room, in front of her colony's design interface. Instead, she was in an endless void of nothing. She stood from a throne that no longer existed, and looked around. As she watched, the nothing filled with points of white light. The stars. The firmament split apart into three sections which took familiar shapes. One was sharp, and had a yellow star in its chest. Another was soft, and had a blue star in its chest. The third was radiant, and had a blindingly white star in its head. Between them was Pink. Just as Blue had last seen her – small, poofy, silly-looking and so incredibly sad.

"She could not see which way to go / If you did not twinkle so."

Blue didn't care what reason anything else happened for, Pink was there! She could reach out and touch her! So she tried, Blue moved faster than was dignified for a diamond with her hand outstretched to reach Pink. "Pink," she called out. "I'm here, I'm here, it's all going to be alright, just come to me and – no!" A hand made out of stars and the empty space between them snatched Pink away right as Blue reached her. "Give her back!"

It was the soft figure with the blue star in her chest that held Pink away from Blue. As far above Blue as far as Blue was above an average gem. The soft one shook Pink around like a toy, and the three figures threw their heads back in silent laughter.

Blue tried to call on her powers, the mystic arts she had pioneered, but nothing happened. She tried to leap up to grab Pink, but the soft figure would yank Pink higher than Blue's hands could reach at the last moment. Tears blinded Blue, so desperate was she to get Pink back.

"Please!" Her plea startled the three figures out of their laughter. "Please, give her back! Take me, instead! Take anything I have! Take everything! Everything for her, please!"

They laughed at her again, only this time she could hear it. A million voices all joined together in horrid mockery of Blue's anguish. Blue's memory was sharper than any other diamond's, she knew those voices. She remembered them pleading with her, as she shattered them. They had defied the order of the diamonds, they had broken White Diamond's laws, there was nothing she could do for them; and now they mocked her. When there was nothing she could do for Pink.

Crack.

A horrible sound silenced the laughter. Blue saw the soft figure's vicious grin as Pink vanished from her hand. When she opened it, pieces of pink gemstone fell down onto Blue.

"No." Blue hastily grabbed the shards. "No, nonono! Pink!" It couldn't be, she wouldn't allow it to be! She tried to fit them back together, even as her tears fell onto her hands and obscured the shards. "Pink, come back."

The three figures threw their heads back in horrid laughter.

"Though I know not what you are / Twinkle, twinkle little star."

"Come back," Blue pleaded with Pink's shards as her legs gave out from under her. In a most un-diamond-like way, her voice cracked as she kept trying to piece Pink together. "Come back..." Blue was surrounded by her water-like aura of vivid blue light as she clenched her hands and slammed them into the ground.

Her aura exploded out from her, banished the three figures which had tormented her, and the firmament they were made from. Suddenly, Blue was in her throne in her diamond base again. Her face was streaked with excessive tears, and her aura flared around her visibly. What had been the cause of those visions?

"When the blazing sun is gone / When there nothing shines upon."

As she heard her jet singing, she felt some power try to seep through her aura, but she banished it. So that's what that was. Sorrow was replaced with cold fury as she stood from her throne and walked to where Jet and Pearl had been practicing.

Her jet smiled up at her, but Blue was in no mood to be soothed by his similarity to Pink. She reached down and snatched him from the ground in her hand, and held her up to her face. "You," she hissed dangerously, "are never to do that again."

He was confused and afraid. He'd never seen Blue Diamond angry before, he had enjoyed a privileged position before. "But I thought you wanted me to sing?"

"I don't care what you thought I wanted, I'm telling you what I want now." Dangerously angry, she squeezed him ever-so-slightly. "Do I need to repeat myself?"

"No," Jet cringed back from her, clearly on the verge of crying himself. "I don't understand what I did wrong, my diamond – "

"You don't need to understand!" Blue Diamond hadn't shouted in centuries. The sound of it shook Pearl from her insensate state. "I am your diamond, I have given you my orders! In fact..." Blue Diamond narrowed her eyes at the terrified Jet. "Until I say otherwise, you are forbidden from making any noise. Is that clear?"

Jet tried to talk, but nothing came from his mouth. He was surprised by this, clearly, and didn't comprehend how it had happened. Blue did, however. Diamonds had power over their gems, geas was one such power. Without words to convey his understanding, Jet could only nod his acceptance of Blue's orders.

"Good." Blue's last bits of rage made her cast Jet to the ground like an unwanted toy as she walked back to her throne. She didn't look back at Jet who had landed badly. She didn't see the way his leg was bent slightly more than was normally possible, or how he had begun to weep in silence from the physical and emotional pain. For that moment in time, Blue didn't care.

But she didn't stop Pearl from rushing in to help the hybrid either. She was more focused on forgetting the horrible vision she had seen and getting back to work. It didn't work, and mere minutes later she was a sobbing wreck in her throne all over again.

–

Jet wouldn't play with Pearl anymore. Pearl had accessed the records on organics and followed procedure to let the hybrid's organic half begin self-repair, which involved shoving the damaged internal structures back together and securing it in the correct alignment with an exterior brace. Short of calling on an amber – which could not be done without Blue Diamond's permission, there was nothing to do but wait.

Pearl had thought 'perhaps play will help the time pass faster' for Jet, but the hybrid wouldn't respond to her. In fact he cringed away from her every time she went to touch him. That made the feeding, bathing, and lavatory duties she had in his care difficult to say the least. All the fossil seemed capable of doing was sitting on his cushion, eating significantly less than his routine demanded, and refusing to play.

It began to worry Pearl. Without play, humans would go insane. It was stated as fact in Pink Diamond's notes. All the progress that Blue Diamond had made away from her grief had been reversed. Her diamond could barely work for a day without an emotional breakdown; the majority of the colonization efforts had to be managed by her aquamarines.

Pearl didn't know what to do.

She knew she had to do something when Jet started to lose mass. It meant his body was entering a starvation period, where it was in need of more resources than it had provided. But Jet wouldn't eat. So she did what she would normally not do, and approached her diamond.

"My diamond," Pearl dolefully called while she saluted.

The weeping matriarch turned in her throne to regard her.

"Your Jet is in need of maintenance. I don't know how to fix what is damaged. What should I do?" She remained still as she waited for her diamond's reply. All around her, teardrops almost as large as she fell but she remained in position.

Blue Diamond sighed, mournfully, and closed her eyes. "Bring him to me."

Pearl bowed, and walked backward out of Blue Diamond's splash zone. Then she gracefully made her way to Jet's cushion, bubbled him, and brought him to Blue Diamond. As they approached the giant woman, Jet became visibly agitated and tried to get out of the bubble. Specifically, he tried to get away from Blue Diamond – more fervently as they grew closer.

Blue Diamond took Pearl's bubble in her hand, and lifted Jet up to her eye level. She watched as Jet literally cowered before her in abject terror, and wept more.

Pearl couldn't tell if she genuinely felt remorse for what she'd done, or if her sorrowful mood hadn't abated yet.

"Jet," her diamond said, "I'm sorry for how angry I got. I wish I could say I was better at controlling my emotions, but I'm not." She looked at the fossil with sorrowful eyes. "I lift my geas, you can make noise again. But my order stands – no singing ever again." With a minor flex of her fingers, Blue popped Pearl's bubble and held Jet directly in her hand. "There. Better?"

Jet was timid a moment before he opened his mouth and breathed deep. His gasping breath made noise, and the return of such ability made him happy. He crawled over and hugged Blue Diamond's thumb.

Though Pearl noticed, he didn't hug it as hard as he'd done before.

Blue Diamond seemingly didn't notice, and smiled despite her tears. "Alright. Now get back to eating your food. You're the only jet I have – I'd rather not lose you." She lowered Jet to the floor, where Pearl bubbled him again and carried him back to his cushion. His leg was still damaged, and he still would be unable to walk.

Pearl had learned long ago that what a person said mattered ever-so-slightly less than what they didn't say. Perhaps Jet hadn't picked up on the implications in Blue Diamond's apology, but Pearl did. She couldn't help but feel like this would become a regular occurrence. Like how it had been for Pink Diamond.

–

Holly-Blue Agate found herself in a more chipper mood as the zoo became more popular a location for gems across the empire. Sure, they were there mostly to take notes on the construction of other zoos, but she was in charge of the facility. Barring orders from Blue Diamond otherwise, she was ultimately in charge of everything that went on. All these guests, even those of higher classes than she, had to listen to her. She gloated to herself internally, and plied sweet manipulation externally so that they never had to see her whip come out.

An agate needed to command with and without the whip in equal measure.

Even the hessonites who would command the new zoos had to heed her advice on human care and hybrid production. She had been so positively gleeful to make high and mighty 'clarity' gems sit through a presentation about human reproduction and how it related to hybrids. They'd been so ill at ease, but not Holly-Blue! Holly-Blue had put in her hours of slogging through Pink Diamond's process, and now she was the expert! A mere agate in charge of what had been a backwater outpost, an expert on gem production.

Her hybrids were a delight to work with, not nearly as roudy as the Earth-grown clods among her troops. They listened, they were always happy to see her, they did exactly as they were told, they punched amethysts so hard that they skipped along the surface of the containment area lake like skipping stone…

Something in her train of thought made Holly-Blue stop mid step, but she had to stop and rethink her thoughts before she realized what. Hastily she turned back to the viewing window she had passed which let her look into the containment area. There she saw amethyst guards quartz-rolling at her precious hybrids with weapons drawn. The poor pseudo-gems looked so afraid they only fought back out of desperation.

In what felt like moments, she was at the access door then in the containment area herself. "What is the meaning of this?!" She shouted while an amethyst guard was punched almost vertically into the air. Oh this was awful, Holly-Blue thought as she advanced on the scene. All of the hybrids involved were fossils, agatized bone, so they weren't in danger from mere amethysts. But did they know that? "Stop this at once, I'll have all of you on toe nail clipping duty for years for this – "

Holly-Blue was stopped by a gem destabilizer being brandished in her face. The forked green metal poles with distinctly yellow lightning between them would have dispersed her form with a touch. The hand which held it was a massive slab of quartz – a jasper from her banded coloring. As Holly-Blue got a better look at her, she realized the jasper was the Jasper. The legendary warrior from the rebellion. Her utterly massive mane of hair and the gem in place of her nose were telltale signs.

"Hold, agate," Jasper growled as she continued to hold the destabilizer in Holly-Blue's face. "Orders from Yellow Diamond are to toughen these lesser agates up. Get them worked into proper quartz soldiers." She looked back at the amethysts surrounding the fossils and jerked her chin upward. That seemed to be the sign to resume the attack, as the amethysts began to go after the poor hybrids once more. "They're strong. But they're soft. A few days of this will harden them up to where we can begin real training."

"They can't go for days on end of activity!" Holly-Blue found she cared less and less for the possibility of being poofed in light of this new information. "They have strict care requirements that need to be met."

"Tough. The diamond's orders are absolute."

"Blue Diamond charged me to care for these worthless animals and finish Pink Diamond's work, and now you're going to ruin a whole batch of actually valuable humans!" Holly-Blue watched in horror as an amethyst's gem-weapon came dangerously close to hurting her display model fossil, which she had presented to Blue Diamond, and her frustration became too much to bear. "Slag your orders! And slag Yellow Diamond!"

The amethysts stopped, turned and looked in horror at what Holly-Blue had said. Jasper turned and looked at her in shock at what Holly-Blue had said. Holly-Blue had her hands clasped over her mouth in shock at what she had said. She hadn't meant to say that. She shouldn't have said that. That was meant to be something she kept locked up in her thoughts, but never ever give voice to.

And her troops had heard. The fossils had heard. There was no turning back anymore. The only path forward was to double-down.

Holly-Blue took a deep breath then gracefully side-stepped the gem destabilizer, Jasper was too stunned to resist, and brought her elbow down on Jasper's wrist. The weapon landed in the grass and fizzled to inactivity. Then she swiftly brought her knee up into the Jasper's abdomen.

Jaspers were tough, the Jasper moreso, but agates were every bit as strong as any quartz soldier. And Holly-Blue was motivated beyond all reason in that moment. Jasper doubled over and let out a gasp of shock.

Holly-Blue Agate kept on the offense, and laid into Jasper with a punch right next to her gemstone, then again on the other side. Finally she interlocked her hands together and brought them both down on the back of Jasper's head, to drive her into the dirt. Whereupon she proceeded to stomp on the legendary soldier's head.

"This is not Yellow Diamond's zoo. This is Pink Diamond's zoo administrated by Blue Diamond's trusted agate: Me. Blue Diamond left strict orders, and no one short of White Diamond can countermand them!" Every stomp drove Jasper's head deeper into the ground. "So either give White Diamond a call, get off my station, or get in line, soldier!" Holly-Blue stopped her stomping to glare at the stunned amethysts. "Well?! Whose orders matter more to you?! The diamond who gave you purpose again, or the one who would've had you all shattered?!"

As one the amethysts dispelled their weapons and backed away from the fossils.

Under Holly-Blue's boots, Jasper turned her head enough to look up at the agate in shock. Perhaps no agate before her had dared get physical with the perfect quartz. Well, now Jasper knew better.

"As for you," Holly-Blue hissed. "You're here as a guest. Your presence here is through the grace of Blue Diamond. Don't step out of line again, or I'll throw you off this station myself." Holly-Blue looked around and saw that most of the forested part of the containment area was badly damaged. The other fossil gems were, hopefully, on the other side of the lake where they wouldn't have heard or seen the display. "And clean this mess up! Training is done in the facility proper, not the containment area!"

"Yes, Holly-Blue," the amethysts muttered.

Jasper stood up after the agate took her foot off. The two quartzes shared an odd look, as the perfect soldier faced off with an average commander. However, Jasper blinked first, and saluted Holly-Blue. "Yes, agate," she muttered, and then went to work fixing a toppled tree.

As soon as Holly-Blue heard the door to the containment area close behind her when she left, she became a nervous wreck as she asked herself what had come over her to do something so stupid.

Meanwhile inside, all the amethysts could talk about was how cool Holly-Blue had been. All the fossils could think of was how Holly-Blue had come to their rescue. And all Jasper could think about was the strange feeling she couldn't repress that she had felt when she met Holly-Blue's defiant eyes – it was like when she had looked into Rose Quartz's eyes.

 

[Syroc]

Goddam, Holly Blue can be savage if she wants to be. I like it!

And Blue Diamond continues to be painfully self-centered to the point of completely missing the point. For someone who can force other people to feel what she feels, she's absolutely fails at basic empathy

 

[Trondason]

You know, if Steven is still going to be a thing and show up later - then it's just going to further 'prove' that this was Pink Diamond's goal all along.

Since even being trapped on Earth with limited resources she was still trying to merge Gem and Organic life together, as she eventually used herself as her capstone/masterpiece to turn into/make Steven. With Steven growing up and gaining/recovering all the things Pink could do as well as possibly bringing new stuff in when he grows up - showing mastery level proof that her method worked so perfectly that it was even able to fully merge a Gem as powerful as a Diamond - thus all gems weaker (everything else) should have no trouble with the procedure.

Her way worked to get full functionality of a Gem/organic hybrid in a single generation, allowing the Gem Empire to convert a full breeding population of each gem type in a single sacrifice/conversion and from then on can allow the humans to breed as normal to create more. (Strangely, they were never able to find any samples of her previous attempts/failures or her notes. She must have hidden them in a secure lab that they haven't found yet as Pink was very fond of hiding stuff)

If/when they find out how Steven can fuse not only with other Gems, but also with other humans who have no connection to Gems at all (and possibly other organic life in general, not just humans (aliens?) - that still needs to be tested), that opens up all kinds of new avenues of research. Possibly also the fusions between gem types would open up new stuff as well, but their attitude towards fusing as a culture puts that in doubt.

Even just having the humans with different types of gems interbreeding later on to 'mix' gem types up to create new or hybrid gems... They could try and tailor custom gems in that manner to either get something new, or to combine traits that they like together into one being...

Click to shrink...

There is no evidence that Steven can have a kid without giving up his own gem. And I rather believe that Steven is only organic in the very technical sense. A very very precise hologram simulating an organic creature down to teh cellular level. This would explain all the organic processes we see Steven have, and how he's still capable of gem powers like shape-shifting and fusion. His body, in the literal sense, is still made out of light, it's just light that is pretending to be a bunch of cells working in unison. It also explains hsi various mishaps with shape-shifting. HIs body is used to operating entirely normally and on it's own, just cells doing what cells do, so they can end up getting confused. Like when the cells were turned into cats, or when they thought they should be older than they are, or younger than they are.

Plus, it should be noted, that Steven definitevely has powers these gem-humans don't. Like shape-shifting. I rather doubt these guys can fuse either, for their bodies ARE NOT made of light, they are solid matter.

 

[serra2]

There is no evidence that Steven can have a kid without giving up his own gem. And I rather believe that Steven is only organic in the very technical sense. A very very precise hologram simulating an organic creature down to teh cellular level. This would explain all the organic processes we see Steven have, and how he's still capable of gem powers like shape-shifting and fusion. His body, in the literal sense, is still made out of light, it's just light that is pretending to be a bunch of cells working in unison. It also explains hsi various mishaps with shape-shifting. HIs body is used to operating entirely normally and on it's own, just cells doing what cells do, so they can end up getting confused. Like when the cells were turned into cats, or when they thought they should be older than they are, or younger than they are.

Plus, it should be noted, that Steven definitevely has powers these gem-humans don't. Like shape-shifting. I rather doubt these guys can fuse either, for their bodies ARE NOT made of light, they are solid matter.

Click to shrink...

Didn't the confrontation with White Diamond end with him having his gem ripped out and it forming it's own body?

 

[Trondason]

Didn't the confrontation with White Diamond end with him having his gem ripped out and it forming it's own body?

Click to shrink...

Yeah, and Steven's Body became sickly and pale. I would entirely believe that a "hologram" that was so precisely and painstakingly built up over the years, one made by a diamond no less, could survive a hot minute without it's gem. Not well, again, as seen with how Steven seemed to have been dying, but for a bit.

 

[samdamandias]

Well, at least we know what the three Z glyph does.

Interesting how Blue Pearl had a happy dream, but Blue Diamond got a dream exploring her guilt in the "shattering" of Pink.

Plus, it should be noted, that Steven definitevely has powers these gem-humans don't. Like shape-shifting. I rather doubt these guys can fuse either, for their bodies ARE NOT made of light, they are solid matter.

Click to shrink...

The existence of Stevonnie and Steg means that fusions involving solid matter are possible.

I wonder if we're going to see any Ammolites or Wood Opals in the story. The presence of Jets means that eventually there might be Anthracites, which would certainly be interesting.

 

[LordAlania]

It seems theres something in humans that breeds rebellion. And I love how it seems that the story of Pink/Rose with other diamonds is repeating with Jet.

Sidenote: While I do not think that Steven is some kind of super hologram; pretty sure he would not have to give up his gem to have child. Said child probably wont be a gem because males and females have different roles in reproduction.

 

[Trondason]

The existence of Stevonnie and Steg means that fusions involving solid matter are possible.

I wonder if we're going to see any Ammolites or Wood Opals in the story. The presence of Jets means that eventually there might be Anthracites, which would certainly be interesting.

Click to shrink...

They are "possible", but they do not seem to be the exact same as normal Gem fusions. When Stevonnie was first made, it did not seem like Steven and Connie becoming one united being. It by large actually just seemed like Connie given a bigger body and some of Steven's emotions. It seemed to be mostly Connie, and the lack of a Steven actually was starting to upset her after a while.

Something to note is the scale of the fusions of Stevonnie and Greg. They are big. More than big enough to physically house the the human in the fusion. Steven's maleable light form encompasses their physical immutable form

It seems theres something in humans that breeds rebellion. And I love how it seems that the story of Pink/Rose with other diamonds is repeating with Jet.

Sidenote: While I do not think that Steven is some kind of super hologram; pretty sure he would not have to give up his gem to have child. Said child probably wont be a gem because males and females have different roles in reproduction.

Click to shrink...

While Steven is a super-hologram, I kinda have doubts about a piece of that super-hologram being able to exist separated from him for prolonged periods of time. Maybe he could make a baby in a way semi-akin to Lion and Lars... but Lion doesn't really age and we aren't given any reason to believe Lars is either.

Gems are only female in physical appearance. A very malleable physical appearance at that. I very much doubt anything approaching normal human reproduction went into Steven's making.

 

[Scipio231]

The existence of Stevonnie and Steg means that fusions involving solid matter are possible.

Click to shrink...

It could very well be that rather than a true fusion, Steven's gem instead creates a kind of gem-body shell around the Human in question. Both of the Steven-fusions are more than large enough for that to be the case.

EDIT: And... Ninja'd.

 

[Jetsmillion]

This story is feeling like watching a train wreck in slow motion. It is horrifying, but you can't look away.

I'm really worried about how the Crystal Gems will react to these Home World Human/Gem Hybrids. I'm guessing how they react will be determined by where in the timeline it takes place. Steven would certainly have a different reaction then Rose/Pink.

 

[Chairtastic]

I wonder if we're going to see any Ammolites or Wood Opals in the story. The presence of Jets means that eventually there might be Anthracites, which would certainly be interesting.

Click to shrink...

ammolite is the Fusion that would result from an Ammonite fusing with a pearl. Opalized wood is result of Amber and Ammonite fusing, but new fossil varieties are being worked on by Yellow's peridots. Anthracite is still in production.

 

[Vaalintine]

Goddam, Holly Blue can be savage if she wants to be. I like it!

And Blue Diamond continues to be painfully self-centered to the point of completely missing the point. For someone who can force other people to feel what she feels, she's absolutely fails at basic empathy

Click to shrink...

It seems to me she's attempting, but missing the point of it entirely. Though her vision seems to be pointing her in the right direction with how it showed how the other diamonds were so far above Pink, in the same way diamonds are above other gems, and then placing her below all the vision-diamonds.

 

[SmashQueen]

Anthracite, eh? *googles*

Spoiler

So a new gem type that is stronger than jet, is perhaps slow to anger, and could perhaps be foot soldiers? May be very energetic Maybe too energetic Hey, maybe crowd them with the spinels and watch them play off each other.

On a different note, Blue needs motivation to tend to Pink's garden and find Spinel.

Anywho. Nice seeing Jasper being humbled. Peridot next chapter?

 

[AMomentForCthulh]

Humans and Gems have a tendency to create an "If anything would happen to [ ], I would kill everyone in this room and then myself" type of relationship

And YEAH! for emotianally underdevelopt leaders

 

[sdarian]

A very very precise hologram simulating an organic creature down to teh cellular level.

Click to shrink...

Then all it needs to do is make some sperm that lasts until the first cellular division starts occurring in the fetus. After that point all the information has been transferred and the mother is making the new body out of real materials and it no longer matters that the original sperm was some super-hologram.

Though to be clear, I don't believe he's a hologram.

 

[Chairtastic]

Chapter Five – Concessions

Things didn't go back to how they used to be in Blue Diamond's control room. Even with Jet's sanction partially lifted, he refused to play with Pearl. When Blue Diamond reached for him he cringed away from her like she was going to hit him. And worst of all, he didn't smile anymore. Blue Diamond hadn't realized how desperately she needed his smile until it was gone, seemingly forever. Once his leg healed, he returned to his lessons with Pearl but would always treat it as a break from his routine of doing nothing.

Sometimes, before he went to sleep, Blue Diamond could swear she heard him crying – but what would he have to cry about? Perhaps his leg caused him pain? Blue had seen in Pink's files that some injuries continued to cause pain for years after they'd healed, though she had never gotten close enough to one to know why.

After she had set her lapis gems to terraforming the initial colonization site for the warp pad hub, she saw Jet languishing on his cushion and decided to get to the bottom of the issue. "Pearl, bring me my jet."

The servant gem gracefully stepped over and encased Jet in a white-blue bubble and brought him over. Even inside the bubble, Jet tried to get as far from Blue Diamond as he could. This proved useless as Blue Diamond picked up the bubble and brought it up to her face.

"Why do you continue to refuse your play periods? Why do you cringe away from me? Why do I hear you cry before sleep? As your diamond, I command you to answer." As soon as Jet's eyes met hers, her geas took effect and Jet was compelled to answer.

He fought it for a few seconds, he frantically tried to keep his mouth shut, but the compulsion was too strong and his will too weak. "Because I'm afraid of you!" He clapped his hands over his mouth to try and stay quiet about the issue, but one hand fought the other to comply with her orders. "I don't understand why I made you so mad! So I don't know how to avoid it again! I don't want you to break my leg again, and I don't know how to avoid that! I want to sing for you, because that made Pink Diamond happy, but you forbade that!"

Oh. Those simple answers burst the bubble of the 'imperious tyrant queen' Blue had been in the midst of putting on. She sighed through her nose and slumped in her throne. "When you say it made Pink happy… are you referring to when your gem was a rose quartz?"

Jet slowly nodded. "Sometimes, when I dream, I dream her memories. She doesn't have a lot of them, but she remembers what made Pink Diamond happy the most. Pink Diamond loved to hear the rose quartzes sing for her, she loved to talk to them, and she loved asking them their opinions on things."

Blue couldn't help but smile a little. Of course Pink would be happy talking to her gems, and asking opinions of support infantry like they were her aristocratic gems.

"She knew each and every one of them by sight," Jet reclined in the bubble, but did so away from Blue's fingers. "She could glance at one rose quartz, know immediately who they were, when they emerged, and their last conversation." As he talked, he saw that Blue's smile widened, and smiled faintly himself. "She was… very huggy, which I think was because the rose quartzes were almost her size?"

Blue chuckled as pleasant memories rolled through her mind. "No, she was just… huggy. When she wasn't being silly." Blue looked at Jet, really looked at him, and saw that even as relaxed as the conversation had become, he was still afraid of her. When she subtly moved her fingers he would jump a little. How odd, it seemed, that she even cared enough to ask one of her gems for the reasons for their behavior. How odd, it seemed, that one of her gems being afraid of her seemed bad. She remembered how Pink had adored her rose quartzes. She would brag about them to Yellow and Blue whenever she could.

And then everything went… horribly wrong. An entire cut of gem ruined by the actions of one. Blue closed her eyes and sighed. She couldn't afford to make Pink's mistake again.

"I got angry because you used your power on me, without permission." The part of her that was the cold tyrant objected to an explanation of any kind, while the part of her that loved Pink and all Pink had done said it was good to explain. "And I forbade you singing because it didn't look like you could control your power at all." She looked at Jet and she saw a vision of Pink again, which brought tears to Blue's face. "But… if you can learn control, to sing without using your power, I will allow it."

Jet's face immediately brightened, and Blue smiled at that. She paused to consider where it could be done that wouldn't be harmful to colonization efforts. An idea struck her. "The atmosphere on the moon is breathable for humans. At this latitude it might be a bit chilly for you, but you can still practice your singing out in the forest. I'll have a robonoid follow you to guide you back when your play period is done."

Jet's smile drooped just a little, and he tilted his head. "How will I know when I can control it?"

"Like all gems, your powers are tied to your mind, and your emotions. With practice and conscious effort, you will gain control. It shouldn't take long – a couple years at most." Blue Diamond tried to look reassuring. "You're clever, you've picked up on Pearl's lessons quickly for a human. This won't be a bother at all."

Jet's confidence seemed to come back, and Blue was glad for it.

–

Peridot 5XG enjoyed a privileged position among the other peridots on the research team that not even the Era One peridots enjoyed. The ambers liked her.

Any time one of the ambers was being difficult with an experiment, typically one that required some form of pain as a side effect, the other peridots had to come to her to get them to comply. She would say much the same thing the original peridot had said, but the ambers would be soothed by her presence. Typically, the female had a stronger reaction than the male. Both of them typically just asked her to use her limb-enhancer touch-stubs to secure their hands while the experiment went on and they would comply. Peridot understood, they were made partially of automatic response systems that might have damaged valuable equipment or hurt the peridots if their hand remained unsecured.

As for teaching them advanced vocabulary, it required more work than she had originally thought. One definition would require a detailed explanation of what the thing being defined was because otherwise the ambers didn't connect the points of data. Other peridots on the team snickered at her when she did the explanations, but they still had to come to her for help when the ambers wouldn't cooperate.

That all changed on log date Five Four One Three. Peridot was across the room, in the midst of examining a healed citrine to see if her mystographical information differed from an undamaged citrine when she heard it.

"It's not making sense because you did it wrong."

The whole work area went dead silent. Peridot abandoned her examination to look over at what had transpired. The female amber, Eye-Five, looked over the shoulder of an Era One peridot who was trying to mathematically solve the question of how an amber healed a gem. From the red outlines around the display, Peridot could tell it had returned a 'does not compute' solution.

"Excuse me," the Era One peridot hissed, "but I think you'll find I have a better understanding of how these numbers work than – "

Eye-Five ignored her and tapped on the screen. "You have all the right numbers, but you have them in the wrong places. Probably because you're using the rose quartz healing method as a model." With deft hands, she encircled certain figures and moved them about the solution. "I'm not a rose quartz, and you need to factor that in. Stop assuming that the problem already exists in the system and – there you go." Eye-Five set the figures to run in an entirely new configuration and ignored the peridot's squawking as she hit the 'run program' button.

Moments later, the display brought up a green-bordered solution to the mathematical problem.

Rather than gloat, Eye-Five skipped away and climbed up into the pseudo-tree for cuddles with En-Seven. Meanwhile all the other peridots, including Peridot, gathered around the display to look over the solution that had been reached. The Era One peridot which had been doing the experiment had been locked into a loop of gritting teeth, shaking, and making 'gh' sounds.

As one, all the peridots turned to glare at Peridot when they couldn't find any fault with the logic Eye-Five had used. "Wha – I didn't teach her to do that!" Peridot defended herself.

"Well then – who did?" Another Era Two peridot groused and crossed her limb-enhancers across her torso. "You're the only one who's done any teaching with them."

"I taught them linguistics! Basic vocabulary so they could understand what we wanted them to do!" Suddenly the subject of her coworker's judgement, Peridot started sweating and scrambling for a way out. "None of you had a problem when I helped them learn how to talk!"

"None of that explains this," a third peridot growled. "How did a defective gem learn enough higher mathematics to correct our work?"

The initial Era One peridot continued to remain in shock.

"Maybe the results will tell us something," a fourth peridot calmly ventured. She continued to glare at Peridot as she advanced through the crowd to look at the results. "This data indicates time manipulation is strongly involved," she said and tapped her chin with her limb-enhancer touch-stubs. "Is everyone's chronometer functioning correctly?"

"Mine has been spotty every time we do an experiment." "I got mine smashed by that bismuth the ambers fixed, and haven't gotten a chance to do repairs." "I never needed mine, so I didn't finish installing it."

The general consensus was 'no'.

"So we need external confirmation," the quiet peridot confirmed, and tapped her limb-enhancer. "Bridge, this is the work station. Could we get an update on the time remaining for our project?"

The smooth voice of the sapphire overseeing the project replied. "Let's cut to the end of a pointless series of questions. The amber's time manipulation has put you three weeks out of sync with the universe outside your work station. I've made Yellow Diamond aware of this, and she has increased your budgeted time."

"Thank you. Work station, out." The quiet peridot shrugged and looked around. "So, we're out of sync, but it doesn't explain how this has happened."

Peridot was once more the target of her fellows, and decided to fix this by demanding answers of the source. She stomped her way over to the amber's tree and called up. "Hey!" En-Seven and Eye-Five looked up from their snuggling and then down to her. "How did you clods learn to fix that problem?"

"We watched, we listened," the ambers said together. En-Seven even had the gall to arch his eyebrow at Peridot.

That simple answer threw a rock into Peridots mental gears, and stopped her outrage for a moment. "You… watched? You listened?" When they nodded, Peridot felt one of her eyes twitch. "You mean to tell me you learned higher level mathematics from simple observation?!"

"Yes," they answered in unison again. "It wasn't hard," Eye-five added with a smile. "Once you know how to do the formulas, everything snaps together."

"I'm better with the stuff that deals with shapes," En-Seven added in a stage whisper. "But she's better with the big walls of numbers."

"Oh, that's. That's… swell." Peridot didn't know how to respond to that. Instead, she turned and walked back to the group, stunned. "They learned it from watching us."

The general consensus among the peridots was that Peridot must have misunderstood. So additional peridots went over to the ambers to ask the question. Each time, the questioner would come back as stunned as Peridot had been.

"Hey," one of the ruby guards who protected the ambers offered with a cheerful smile. "At least you guys won't lose your role to these things." Her smile became visibly hollow and bitter. "Like we did." Then she snapped back into genuine cheer. "Because Blue Diamond doesn't have any peridots. As long as Yellow Diamond doesn't want any ambers of her own, you'll be fine!"

Peridot processed that information and found she could stand up slightly taller afterward. "That actually helps a lot. Thank you."

"No problem!" The ruby waved her off. "Anything to spare a gem the horror of realizing that the role you were given when you were created was cruelly ripped away by the advancement of gemkind!"

A solid minute of silence resulted as the twenty peridots stared at the – obviously very old – ruby. "Are you okay?"

The ruby laughed, and smiled again. "No!"

–

"Come all you pretty fair maids, whomever you may be / Who loves a jolly sailor bold, who ploughs the raging sea," sang the ammonite as she led about fifty wild humans out of the roaming eye and towards the assimilation bay.

Jasper had to admit: Holly-Blue Agate was good at making monsters. The ammonite female was almost as tall as a quartz soldier, with a dark yet radiant skin tone, and hair that trailed down almost to the floor. Her gemstone, spiraled and glowing from active use, was set into her shoulder, and produced a haunting melody that flowed with the opal's hypnotic song.

Jasper watched in sick fascination as the ammonite stood next to the assimilation bay door while humans were fed into the conveyor. Her hypnosis would wear off halfway down the line – Jasper knew from the rebellion the exact limits of opal hypnotic power. Jasper almost pitied the humans who would come to their senses in the midst of being processed. But life on the zoo was better than anything they had on Earth.

After the last humans were loaded in, the amethysts which had accompanied the ammonite piled on the praise and compliments.

"Great work, Ehs-Three!" "Fifty humans! All at once!" "You had them practically eating out of your hand!"

The human-gem monster flourished under all the praise, but quickly snapped to a salute alongside the proper gems when Holly-Blue Agate advanced on her.

"Ammonite," the agate said, crisp and commanding. "Report!"

"Yes, Holly-Blue," the human, 'Ehs-Three', started with her soothing, gentle voice. "We departed from the station and 8XK instructed me in the emergency operation of the Roaming Eye, per protocol I was unaware of."

Holly-Blue turned to the relevant amethyst and squinted. "Is that so?"

The amethyst nodded, and Holly-Blue clicked her tongue against her teeth.

"Continue."

"Yes, Holly-Blue. We arrived on Earth in the region of the communication hub. Some humans had made shelters near the hub, so we watched them to ensure they were not in the midst of some infectious disease."

"Good, good," Holly-Blue nodded.

"When it was determined that the humans were suitably healthy, I was sent in with 8XO shapeshifted into the form of a bird to watch me. The humans were a bit aggressive, but fell under my spell without difficulty. I was able to use my spell to send them to sleep any time I needed to rest my voice, and we returned without incident. Report completed."

Holly-Blue then took the report of the amethysts while Jasper watched. At least the ammonites wouldn't need instruction in how to obey their agates. It would just be a pain to get those 'fossils' to act like agates. However, what surprised Jasper was how Holly-Blue acted after the reports had been delivered.

She immediately was all smiles and warmth for the ammonite. "Ah! Fifty humans! Some children and pregnant females even! A whole settlement all at once – oh, I'm so proud of you Ehs-Three!" In some strange ritual, Holly-Blue held the human's face in her hands, and squished her cheeks together to shake her head. "Who's a good human? Who's a good human?"

"Hee!" The ammonite said around the squishing of her face. "I am! Me!"

"Yes you are!" Holly-Blue gushed and stroked the human's hair lovingly. She stepped back and was suddenly all seriousness when she talked to the amethysts. "Take Ehs-Three through the delousing bay, and get her in position with the other ammonites to keep those wild animals in check. We're expecting three new ambers today, and I won't have their mothers under undeserved stress."

"Yes, Holly-Blue," the soldiers responded in unison and marched alongside the hybrid. As soon as they were out of Holly-Blue's direct line of sight, Jasper saw the gems and human go right back to playing.

If Jasper had a stomach it would turn. Didn't they realize how easily that ammonite could turn her powers on them?

Holly-Blue sharply turned to glare at Jasper, unconcerned with the differences in their height. "See? That's how you get results from a hybrid. Reward the behavior you want."

"That was sickening," Jasper growled.

"And effective." The agate was clearly pleased with herself, and held her hand up to her chest. "My fossils are the most well-behaved gems short of White Diamond's court." As quickly as her good mood appeared, it vanished with a malevolent glare. "And all without almost ruining them."

"Yellow Diamond expects those opals and those agates to be opals and agates," Jasper growled in return. "Not to be well-behaved pets!"

"I don't think Yellow Diamond really knows what she's asking for then," Holly-Blue fired back with an arched brow. "We're all the diamond's pets. They use us until we do something they don't like, then we're gone."

Jasper wanted to refute what she'd heard. She was a soldier, not a pet! But then she remembered how she was expected to drop everything and come just because Yellow Diamond called. At least she had it better than a pearl would – a pet was better than being a decoration.

Suddenly the agate was all smiles. "But don't fret! I know the exact way we can teach them some aggression without damaging them too much." She turned on her heel to march down the hall to a door. A seldom-used door from the amount of dust on it. Inside, Jasper was presented with rows of spears, hundreds of shields in kite and buckler style, and racks upon racks of different sort of blades. "An agate is well known for her whip. And fossils respond best when they know what is expected of them when. So we'll train them to only show aggression when they've a weapon in their hands. It also allows us to train them toward summoning their gem weapons, wouldn't you think?"

The perfect quartz smirked, walked past the agate and picked up a weapon in a style she found familiar. A massive two-handed ax like what she'd carried into battle against Rose Quartz. "They're going to get damaged this way too, you realize?"

"But of course," Holly-Blue said as she too strode in and picked up a weapon. A long, narrow saber with two cutting edges, a narrow tip, and a handguard to protect her fingers. That style of weapon was familiar to Jasper too – Rose Quartz's terrifying combat pearl used that style. "But this way they'll be damaged less, and not damaged in a way an amber can't fix."

So Holly-Blue was okay with the agates fighting so long as they had a weapon too? Jasper could live with that. What Holly-Blue didn't seem to consider was that training aggression didn't work how she thought it did – putting a weapon into a person's hands and getting them angry didn't make them less angry when they put the weapon down. Jasper had been there, she'd lived through that. All it did for her was made her angry enough to use her fists. Holly-Blue thought she'd tricked Jasper, but she'd just tricked herself.

Maybe, if Jasper was clever about it, she could ax the gem-eating monsters before they had a chance to eat her.

 

[Vaalintine]

Seems everybody is trying to find some sort of healthy coping mechanism of some sort. Or at least just cope. Not including Jasper, of course.

 

[SmashQueen]

Or at least just cope. Not including Jasper, of course.

Click to shrink...

Jasper is too Jasper to do anything short of punching, headbutting, or hedgehog rolling her problems. This is a moral problem and she's likely not used to those.

Teaching humans to fight is going to backlash somehow. For all their lives, the ones in the zoo have been pacifists. The new village of humans (yikes!) will likely already know and encourage the others to fight, but without gems they won't be considered for anything other than developing their own. Or maybe they will be able to teach the gem-humans to fight, as gems don't have the same internal structures as humans do.

Hopefully nobody gets the bright idea to fix the galaxy warp any time soon. If that station of canon stays relatively fixed though, then that'll mean even more humans are wanted to the point where a roaming eye or hand of authority won't be enough. It wouldn't just be defending the Earth itself from Homeworld or the activation of the Cluster. It would defending every free human on Earth.

Spoiler

The hand of authority that Jasper and Period had in canon would have to have barred cells if it gets used, as gem-humans likely wouldn't poof or be affected by regular cells.

Also, really don't want to hear of White Diamond wanting even one fossil. Likely she would pull out their gem and let the human half die so she could have a perfect gem to control.

 

[Katillno]

When I saw how holly blue was interacting with the fossils all I could think of is that they're practically her children aren't they

 

[Trondason]

When I saw how holly blue was interacting with the fossils all I could think of is that they're practically her children aren't they

Click to shrink...

She raised them their whole life, they are her future and her responsibility, her greatest success.

 

[w34v3r]

Can we name the old ruby? I think her name should be Salty.

 

[EarthScorpion]

Well, this is a charming little work. I particularly like the novel approach for the development of an AU, and I'm interested to see how things go from hereon in.

 

[RiverDelta]

Followed.

This feels like an AI Rebellion story, but it's set on Homeworld and the Gems are the humans.

 

[Chairtastic]

Chapter Six – Progress

Eudoxia knew this would happen. She knew that living so close to a God's House would be trouble. Either the gods would grow displeased and send a horrible monster to destroy them, or mere proximity to the House would kill them. She'd told Demetria they shouldn't live there – but the men of Rome wouldn't come near the House. It was safe, Demetria had said. Safer than being anywhere close to Romans.

Well, now they were dead!

A witch had come into the village and struck them all dead, which they found out as they were ushered through the path to the underworld. Eudoxia hadn't expected her whole village to wind up in the Elysian Fields, but the gods were merciful when they cared to be.

Eudoxia was the village huntress, alone since Demetria had run afoul of a boar. It had been her job to train children how to find food in the forests, how to prepare their hides for the tanner, and how to offer portions of the kill to the gods. She was a heavily scarred woman from years in that work, and had shaved her hair close to her head so it wouldn't get caught in the brush. All traits worthless in paradise.

Paradise took the shape of a verdant forest, with a massive lake, and a little voice that whispered into her ear what the gods willed her to do. Strangely enough she found the little voice highly agreeable, even as it told her to do the same activities day in, and day out. For a week, her village kept mostly to the forest near what was assumed to be the eastern shore. A simalcrum of the sun crossed the sky every day and became the moon halfway through, so they assumed the direction it rose from to be east.

There was no game in the forest, there were no herbs to gather – all the plants were just bushes and trees which would sprout flowers and fruit at fixed times of the day. There were no insects, no birds, no fish. It was like the only truly living things there were the people.

That concerned Eudoxia, for there were pregnant women and children among them. Would they be forced to endure those states forever? Would the gods deign to speak to them? What would they do with their lives without texts, or homes, or a future? Malaise spread quickly among the people, and Eudoxia could only watch helplessly.

Then, one day when she ventured away from the villagers in the hopes the gods would grant her something to hunt, she came across more people. Not from her village, but obviously not Romans. A variety of skin tones and hair colors – which she had never seen outside of big cities. The main difference was that the majority of them had green or blue eyes. The strangers didn't see her as a threat, and merely waved at her in greeting. Neither did they seem fearful or alarmed when Eudoxia approached them. Were they fools? A warrior covered in scars advanced on them and they seemed unconcerned!

A dark skinned woman with her head shaved close like Eudoxia patted the ground next to her, a clear invitation. Stunned and confused, Eudoxia complied while she tried to process what all this meant. While she did, the other people plucked beautiful flowers from around them and passed them to the dark skinned woman.

They dressed in the same way as the villagers had found themselves – a blue vest, a long white loincloth that wrapped around their chests from the breasts down, brown belts, and strange earrings which would whisper to them.

"Hello brother," the dark skinned woman said with a beautiful smile. "I'm Ay-Nine, I'm so happy that I get to welcome you home." She wove the stems of the flowers into a ring as Eudoxia watched, deft in her craft.

Eudoxia recoiled a little, the villagers had known her well enough to know she was not a man though she appeared as such, but these were strangers. "Um. Sister. I may look the part of a man, but I'm your… sister. And I'm Eudoxia. Have you been dead long?"

The strangers and Ay-Nine looked at her curious, and then at each other. "No. I was born here. We all were. I'm sorry I called you brother, sister Eud-oxia, I'll make sure no one makes that mistake when they meet you." She had a strange way of names, Ay-Nine, she broke it up into two distinct syllables like her own name. Finally she was done, and offered the completed flower crown to the huntress. "Welcome home, sister!"

"The gods allow people who've died here to have children?" She'd never heard that in the stories. But, Eudoxia supposed, people wouldn't stop the act of creating children. She'd been told it was fun. "I guess that explains why the gods allowed the pregnant women to remain so." With trepidation, she took the crown and placed it on her head. She'd been the brutal warrior who killed beasts for her people, she forgot how it felt to just be pretty. Demetria would poke such fun at her.

"You have a funny name for gems, Eud-oxia," Ay-Nine laughed. "If your choosened women find the bearing hurtful, bring them to us. We are ambers, we can undo the hurt."

"Ambers?"

Each of the strangers twisted and turned to show Eudoxia a polished surface on their body – golden yellow in color with bubbles frozen in place within. Ay-Nine's was on the palm of her hand. "We are new gems, our diamond has not said what our role will be yet, but Holly-Blue Agate says she thinks our healing power is important."

Realization dawned on Eudoxia. Demigods. She was seated among demigods. The words were different, but if she replaced 'gems' with 'gods' and 'diamond' with 'Hades' it all snapped into place. These were Hades' children by Persephone – who was named Holly-Blue Agate in the realm of the gods! Suddenly she remembered stories of the legendary temper of the gods, and horror struck her.

Hastily she backed away and made a sign of prayer to the holy beings. "I'm sorry, I didn't know who you were – I thought you were mortals, I'll get back to my people right away – "

"Shhh," Ay-Nine said and grabbed her hand. "Don't be afraid. We're gems and humans at the same time. It's okay for you to sit with us, talk with us!"

"Depending on what the little voice says," another female of slightly lighter skin and oddly cut hair added, "you might be choosened with one of us!"

If Eudoxia had the correct idea of what 'choosened' was a euphemism for, her response to blush terribly bright was appropriate. What an idea! With a demigod? Her?!

"In time," Ay-Nine explained as if it would soothe her. "Those that come after you, and those that come after them will become closer and closer to gems. And then one day, it will be! You are already part of our family, and we want to get to know you – so we can love you, and love those who will come after you!"

Eudoxia stumbled over her words at the thought that if she had children they would begin the journey to being demigods in their own right. But she became alarmingly aware that the ambers as a group had gotten closer to her, all smiles and curious eyes.

"You are covered with old hurts," a male amber told her. "Could you tell us how you got them?"

The huntress looked down at herself, and her cornucopia of scar tissue on display, and looked around at the semi-divine beings. "It would take a long time to tell the story…."

"We can listen to as much or as little as you'd like to tell us," Ay-Nine said and rubbed the hand of Eudoxia's she held. "The routine won't start for many hours."

"Well… okay, the short versions," Eudoxia decided as she settled down. She looked awkwardly around at the ambers and held up her hand to show the crisscrossing scars on her knuckles. "I got these from my neighbor's house cat when I was young. I caught him picking a fight with our cat, and got in the middle of it…."

–

The sounds of metal on metal echoed through the zoo's training region. Amethysts and Beta Kindergarten quartzes stood on the side as a legend crossed blades with a commander. Seated on the floor, in wondrous awe, were the extant adult fossils onboard the zoo. All twenty-two agatized bones, ambers, and ammonites.

Yellow Diamond's agate which commanded the peridots aboard the zoo brandished a narrow sword with little ornamentation and a wide guard, while Jasper wielded a heavy two-handed ax. Despite the differences in their height and weapons, the two quartzes were able to lock attacks regularly.

A sudden clapping noise ended the duel, and Holly-Blue Agate stepped into the arena behind the combatants. Behind her was a waify figure, thinner even than the humans with a light blue uniform, a lace mantle in mimicry of Holly-Blue's, and a perfectly round gemstone set into her head – Holly-Blue's pearl had finally arrived.

"Most fights will not take this long," Holly-Blue groused as she marched in front of her hybrids. "Most will be over in seconds. It is acceptable for fights here to take longer as you're expected to learn, or to teach." The last half of her statement was directed venomously at the other Earth-made quartzes in the room. "Let's start with some observations – who can tell me why Sagenite Agate was able to fend off Jasper's weapon despite the differences in mass?" She looked over the many raised hands among the proper gems and focused exclusively on the hybrids. Holly-Blue's face lit up like a star when one red-haired male raised his hand. "Yes, Gee-Three?"

"The ax is heavier," the human-gem hybrid slowly spoke while all eyes were on him. "It takes a lot of energy to move. If she put too much in and missed, all that energy would be wasted. So she held back."

Jasper scoffed behind Holly-Blue and was completely ignored.

"A good answer, Gee-Three, carefully spending your effort on attacks that you know will connect is important." Holly-Blue clapped her hands together and smiled cheerfully. "But it's also not the complete picture. Jasper, would you like to provide some insight?"

The legendary quartz glared at Holly-Blue's back and grit her teeth. Through her clenching she answered. "If I missed, I'd be open to a counter-attack. I need to hit her center-mass to poof her with my ax, she just needs to stab me in the right spot."

A collective 'oh' was spoken by the observing hybrids.

"Now then," Holly-Blue clapped her hands and her pearl produced a saber from her gem's storage space which Holly-Blue took in her hand. "We'll start with basic swordplay, and move on to other weapon styles. Bare-fist fighting will be one of the last things we cover. Everyone, line up for your training swords."

As anyone could have expected, giving training swords to those who had never held a weapon before – nor had the concept of what a weapon was – did not end well. A few of the humans got poked hard, some got smacked and bruised, one had their eye damaged. Fortunately, ambers could heal all those things, even on each other. But for Holly-Blue it was a stressful experience to go through especially because she couldn't intervene. Sagenite Agate was given command of the fossils' training for matters of impartiality, and she was a rigid taskmaster as an agate should be.

Jasper took pleasure in flaunting Holly-Blue's inability to shield her precious hybrids from harm by being slightly rougher with the hybrids than the other Earth-made quartzes were. Sagenite Agate never saw an issue, so Holly-Blue could only watch and seethe.

Holly-Blue scoured her memories of Pink Diamond's notes to find a way to turn the tides in her hybrid's favor. Something, anything to give them a better start than what she'd seen. When the first lesson was concluded as a resounding failure, she retired to her quarters and looked over the notes directly for something she'd missed.

As it turned out, she had failed to look into Pink Diamond's notes on human culture. It was the most incomplete region of her notes, as she'd started it shortly before Rose Quartz happened. She'd only gotten around to studying a few civilizations, and even then not very much. But there were a few common threads for Holly-Blue to put together.

During the time between the first training session and the second, Holly-Blue and her pearl went among the humans to tell them about the diamonds. They already had a vague idea of who and what the diamonds were – but Holly-Blue told them the story of the people who were their diamonds. Her three display models were encouraged to tell the others what they knew about Blue Diamond from their meeting – her constant emotional pain resonated with the ambers the most, who desperately wished to help her with her 'hurt'.

Her ammonites seemed to grow somber at the thought of Pink Diamond, but Holly-Blue didn't know what to make of that. The agatized bones however, seemed driven by the knowledge that Yellow Diamond commanded Homeworld's armies, and wanted to please her with their strength. Holly-Blue had thought things had gone well, until one of her agatized bones hesitantly approached her as she was leaving the containment area.

"Ehm-One, what's the matter?" Holly-Blue immediately saw that the hybrid was near crying, and had her pearl produce a segment of cloth to dry the fellow agate's eyes. "Come now, you can tell Holly-Blue anything."

After some coaxing, the dark-skinned agate explained the situation. "I… think Yellow Diamond is mad at me. She asked to see me when she was here, and… and…." The poor girl finally broke down crying, and had to lean on Holly-Blue.

"There, there, sweetie. Let it all out." In a moment of softness that would never be experienced by anyone but a fossil, Holly-Blue embraced the poor girl. "Yellow Diamond is demanding. But that is because she sees who you will be at the end of all this training, and expected to see it then." Holly-Blue didn't believe a word of what she had said, but she said it to calm down the crying human. "I know it hurts, that she doesn't believe that you will get there. But I believe in you. So does Blue Diamond. Let Yellow Diamond be mad at you all she wants, you weren't made for her."

When Ehm-One was calmed down, and Holly-Blue could leave the containment area properly, she found herself the subject of Jasper's glare once again.

"What is it now, soldier?" Holly-Blue's sweet tone did a complete shift, into a coy tone to mask her annoyance. "Getting angry on your diamond's behalf again?"

Jasper's eyes narrowed. "Yellow isn't my diamond. And you can't just explain away a diamond's wrath like that."

"Why not?" Holly-Blue arched a brow. "We both know how Yellow feels about organics, but they don't. They don't need to. And by the time they figure it out they'll be strong enough to take it in stride."

Jasper's glare became confused. "How can you do that? How can you just… allow them to shrug off a diamond's scorn?"

"It helps that she's not my diamond."

The station shook as Jasper's hand lashed out and punched a crater into a pink flower decal in the wall next to the containment area door. "She's not my diamond either!"

"Is that right?" Holly-Blue advanced on Jasper with a smirk. "I can't help but wonder. If Pink were around to see you as you are – would she even recognize you as hers?"

A dangerous glint shined in Jasper's eye, and Holly-Blue narrowly dodged a grab attempt on her head via a backstep.

"Ah, you've thought about that as well." Holly-Blue's smirk became even more pronounced. "Each diamond has a set of traits they desire their gems to have. Blue favors adaptability. Yellow favors efficiency. I've worked with Pink Diamond's gems for thousands of years, and I can tell you don't have the traits Pink wanted for her gems."

The dangerous glint in Jasper's eyes was revealed for what it was – a reaction to knowledge she already knew. A layer of outrage over a deep pit of shame.

"Pink Diamond wanted her gems to have joy in their hearts. But you? You're full of fear for them," Holly-Blue flicked her hand toward the containment area, "and a desperate desire to fit in with Yellow's crowd. You want Yellow to be your diamond."

"Shut up," Jasper croaked.

"Because, as far as Pink's gems are concerned, you're an off-color every bit as hideous as someone who came out misshapen."

"Shut up!" Jasper clutched the sides of her head, as if she wanted to squeeze the agate's words out of her mind. When Jasper looked at her again, her eyes were full of rage. With a twinge of magic, the quartz soldier's weapon emerged from her gem – a crash helmet designed in the image of a powerful pompadour with a visor over her eyes.

"Oh ho ho ho, my," Holly-Blue laughed into the back of her hand, and looked at the infuriated perfect soldier without fear. Behind her, she could hear the whispers of some of her soldiers as they watched the scene. "Someone's not very good at hearing the truth."

Jasper breathed heavily for a moment before she took a deep breath and dispelled her weapon. "Here's some truth right back at you. Those monsters will never be as good as real gems."

Holly-Blue's smile vanished.

"They can't fit within the order of the diamonds, because as organics they have no place of their own. Only places where they're tolerated by other, better gems." Jasper's eyes were just as full of rage as they'd been a moment ago, but Holly-Blue got the feeling that Jasper didn't see her there – that the quartz soldier was lost in memories. "And as someone who's spent a lot of time being tolerated, it weighs down on you. They're not as strong as me, they'll snap eventually. And when they do, they'll get good gems ruined. You will have gotten good gems ruined."

"Then maybe," Holly-Blue snarled with a dangerous glint of her own in her eyes, "it would be more effective if we worked on making them stronger than you."

–

Blue Diamond hadn't expected much when she allowed Jet out on his first jaunt across the moon, but she certainly expected him to come back presentable. Instead, when she had gone down to the physical doorway of her diamond base, she saw an utter mess of a human waiting on the other side. His feet were coated in semi-hydrated dirt, his vest and belt were both gone, and instead of wearing his loincloth, he had a much smaller mass of torn white fabric held up to maintain the illusion of modesty. There was plant matter all through his hair – which was missing entire clumps – and the human had the gall to grin up at her.

"What in the universe did you do out there?" The diamond asked as she scooped him up and carried him up the diamond-sized stairs. She immediately called down a landing bubble to transition them into her ship where she had a portable extraction pool that she intended to use to get her servant cleaned up.

"I fell down!" The human said with clear amusement. "A lot! Through trees!"

"How did you repeatedly fall through trees – " Blue stopped mid-step as she thought about it some more. "You figured out how to use your flight powers, didn't you?"

Her human bobbed his shoulders. "Sort of? I could float for a few seconds if I jumped really high."

Blue sighed through her nose and continued the path to her extraction pool. It was smaller than her pool on Homeworld, in that it was never meant to contain all four diamonds at once, just her. There were similarities – the diamond-shape, the colored capstones at all four points to correspond to the members of the Authority, and the trenches which would convey minuscule fragments of Blue's power away for gem production. The diamond sat down in the empty pool and let Jet hop off onto the side while it filled with water from a waterfall effect behind the diamond.

"I suppose I'll have to have a new uniform made for you – unless you've learned how to sculpt light into appropriate attire?" Blue looked down at Jet who tried to reach behind himself to touch his gem, but to no avail. "It's alright, it's a skill that doesn't come easily. Pearl, could you…." Blue looked to her side and saw an empty space where her pearl should have been. The diamond buried her face in her hands in exasperation. "Ah, of course. You got me so flustered, I forgot to bring Pearl with us." Blue extended her will into the ship, and by her command a panel opened up in the side. "Well, I'll just have to do this myself then."

From the panel, Blue extracted a stopped bottle of syrupy red fluid. This was opened, and a drop carefully poured into the water as it rose. Pink foam took shape as the water mixed with the liquid soap and air along its surface.

"Alright, jump in," Blue coaxed the hybrid. "We need to get you clean before someone from my court sees you in this state."

After a moment of reluctance, Jet moved to the water's edge, jumped up and landed in the pool with but a small disturbance of the water. He was fortunate it was deep already. When he emerged, he grinned up at her as if he wasn't the cause for the whole ritual. "If only I needed cleaning, why did you get in too?"

Blue scoffed, and picked the human up out of the water with one hand, then scooped up some foaming water to pour onto him with the other. "The pool doesn't activate unless I'm in it. Now get to scrubbing, that dirt and those twigs won't get off you by pure water friction."

While Jet cleaned himself, Blue Diamond worked in her mind and in her gem. There she stitched together strands of light and willed them into the material plane. In hindsight, she shouldn't have allowed a servant caste gem like Jet to run around with the appearance of an average human. He was hers, and gems would need to know him as hers with a glance. The trouble with that was to create something which could survive Jet's activities in the forest. She opted for a shorter loincloth – the original length was down almost to Jet's ankles, far too long for the wilds – and a top that mostly covered his front, tied together at the neck, and left his back exposed. That would show his gemstone clearly, and have less fabric to catch on. Once he no longer went out into the woods, she would design something more akin to a pearl's outfit, since she intended jets to decorate her court.

"The forest out there is fantastic," Jet said as he scrubbed his hair free of dirt and plant matter. "There's animals hidden in every small crack, you can go so deep there's barely any light, and the wind makes music as it moves through the trees. You should come with me and see it, my diamond!"

Blue Diamond smiled ruefully. "You forgot to practice your power's control out there, didn't you?" She laughed as she watched Jet's hands freeze mid-scrub. "It's alright. There's plenty of time to explore and practice. But I can't come with you – it's unbecoming of a diamond to aimlessly explore their colonies. It's a pleasant thought… but no."

"But this isn't a colony," Jet said with a tilted head. He went back to scrubbing a moment later. "This is the moon of a colony. Is it unbecoming of a diamond to aimlessly explore a moon of a colony?"

"Well…," Blue examined her knowledge of Homeworld's laws and found a blank on that subject. "Technically, no. But this moon will be colonized eventually."

"But it isn't being colonized right now. So you can explore all you want, and no one can say you're breaking the rules."

The diamond inclined her head in thought and smiled faintly. "I… suppose I could. Once I do it, White will definitely make a rule about it, but until she does…."

Jet grinned at her, and Blue felt for a moment like she had when Pink was around, and not being impossible. For the first time in thousands of years, Blue Diamond was happy.

 

[Katillno]

Aw seeing blue get along with jet makes me all warm and fuzzy also love the interaction between jasper and holly